The Battle of Nine
by lotusrose15
Summary: The Ninth Doctor after the end of the Time War. Weird stuff is happening to time, he doesn't know what. Sort of like drabbles put together into a supposedly coherent story line... Ish. Thoughts?
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

My hands shook after my momentous regeneration. Images of a war-torn Gallifrey conflicted with the bittersweet memories I had of it when I was a child.

Those beautiful mountains, and the arrogance of the High Council. Memories were all that were left of my home planet now, but I feared I would have to lock them away lest my infamous anger control me.

I ran my hands over the features that were entirely new to me, especially the ears. I vaguely remembered the moment before the exhilarating regenerative energy had washed over me. I think, I think I said something like:

"I hope the ears are a little less conspicuous this time,"

But how was that possible? How could I have known what I was going to regenerate into before it even happened? I thought it was entirely random?

Had I not fixed the burning of time by killing them all? I refused to think it was even a possibility.

Just to be certain, I won't go back to Earth for a while, until I'm certain all the anomalies in time, like the never-weres, the should-have-beens, no longer exist.

"My actions were justified," I try to convince myself, knowing the only person listening to my madness is my trusty Tardis. She's the only one who would ever put up with me for any extended period of time. Not even my companions like me that much.

I stroke the console of the Tardis, "You're still the most beautiful thing I've ever known," I murmur softly. Sometimes I think it wasn't me that stole her, but her that stole me. Then I realise how silly I'm being and pull myself together.

"Right then, off we go," I say a little louder, in the off chance that someone is listening, which I doubt.

Then I run around the console, pushing buttons, which I'm notoriously good at, off adventuring again. This time without any meddling companions who always insist on wandering off, even though I tell them it's the most important rule of space-time travel. Silly little humans.

I am the Ninth Doctor, and this is my story.


	2. Chapter 2

The wheezing, groaning sound the Tardis makes as it lands some place new, never fails to bring a grin to my face. And right now it's a really big stupid grin, so idiotic I'm almost tempted to duck off to the wardrobe to check my new appearance with this blasted grin, just so I can laugh at myself.

At this thought my grin grows wider and I run eagerly down the ramp to the doors of the Tardis, filled with all the excitement of a little boy that had been allowed ice cream because he ate his vegetables. The feeling never fades, no matter where or when I go, or who with.

My grin suddenly transforms into a frown, as I realise that now I am truly alone. The Tardis doesn't really count, the humans always leave, and my home planet is gone. At my hands, too! It makes me want to simultaneously fall to the ground and howl my frustrations to the universe, and also to take out my anger at myself on every other lonely monster like myself. A long way from home, unable to go back, hoping to use another world to compensate for their loss.

But never mind that, I have a new place to explore! And this time it doesn't matter what happens to me, no one's here to care and there's nowhere for me to go back to either.

Still, according to the scanner, the moon I was about to set foot on was perfectly safe. I ignored the twinge of an unknown emotion somewhere in my gut. The Tardis would keep me safe. She always did, even if she had been wrong before, and probably would again.

I pulled open the door, loving the chills that spread down my spine from the creaking sound that I would never willingly get rid of. Instead, maybe I'll wire it up so that when the situation calls for stealth landings, it will be silent. But that would just take all the fun out of it.

The surface of the moon before me  
>appeared to be made of a golden,sticky substance, somewhat like honey. I crouched down to get a closer look, sticking out a finger and scraping some of it onto my finger. I stick my finger in my mouth and nearly gag at the obnoxious flavour.<p>

I never did like honey. But as I swirl this horribly sweet substance around with my tongue, I realise the flavour isn't quite right. Too tangy.

I rise up to my feet, shrug my shoulders, and step out onto this new and unfamiliar place. Anything could happen, and I'm enjoying the anticipation, which could have ascertained by any casual passer-by if they had seen the massive grin stretching my face from ear to ear.

"A honey-moon," I say quietly to myself. "Now that's original," I'm tempted to chuckle at my own joke, but I'm not that far gone yet. Yet...

"Yes, it is rather odd, isn't it?" croaks a voice behind me, forcing me to spin around and nearly lose my balance in the process.

What stands before me would appear to be human in worse light than this, but unfortunately I can see quite clearly, which affords me the luxury of seeing a creature entirely made out of crystallised honey. Two others materialise behind it, appearing to have come from the moons' surface itself and gradually solidified along the way.

"Grab him," the first one orders, gesturing with a clumsy, but strong looking arm.

As the figures move I notice that it is only the outside that is solidified, the inside remains molten so that they can move more freely. Right now, that is not so good for me. Neither is my curiousity.

The crystallised honey cracks on the figures, and the molten honey within oozes out of them. It makes me shudder with revulsion. Then the molten honey dries into renewed crystallised form. Clever, but not very aesthetically pleasing.

"You're an attractive lot, then aren't you?" I joke, idiotic grin still in place. There may still be hope that they are not hostile. No sense offending them before I'm sure.

"The Master is getting hungry," the leader of the two men-things? that hold my arms as they drag me along says.

"Who would this 'Master,' be then," I ask, to pass the time. Also not to be rude. Plus, I genuinely am curious.

"Hmmmph," snorted the leader, sticking what resembled a nose into the air. "The Master does not deign to speak to mere commoners such as yourself!"

"I'll have you know that I am a Lord," I exclaim, raising my eyebrows at him, letting my true anger show. To hell with being polite!

"Such antiquated titles mean nothing here, Lord or not, you shall be devoured," he says in a way in which he probably thinks is enigmatic. Do these creatures think, anyway? Who knows.

What does he mean by devoured, anyway? What could possibly devour me? I don't see anything around here that's big enough to eat me. Unless...

It couldn't be. No! This moon can't be carnivorous, it's not possible. Then again, I've seen plenty of things that should be impossible. At least this one is something new! I wish I had someone to share this discovery with. The Tardis doesn't count, she can't reply, except with some daft wheezing sound.

"It is time," a disembodied voice says,filling the air with its mysterious voice.

"Time for what?" I ask. "Dinner?"

"Do not be so disrespectful. It is a great honour and a privelege to be feasted upon by one such as myself. This way you will never forget or in turn be forgotten. You are the lucky one."

"I don't think so," says the soft voice of a woman to my left.

I nearly get whiplash I turn my head so fast to see the face that cultured voice belongs to. And what a pretty face it is, dark green eyes set in a face with defined cheek bones and wavy brown hair. A few laugh lines spread out from the corners of her eyes, but they only serve to enhance her beauty, not hinder it. Perhaps wishes do come true after all. If so, I'm glad it was that one and not one of the many other inane wishes I make in a day.

She turns to me, grabs my hand, where I hadn't even noticed the honey-minions had released their hold on me, I'd been so busy studying her. "Run," she whispers, her voice carrying to my ears, and mine alone.

Then she drags me into a run, away from the honey-minions, in the direction that I think the Tardis is in, though I'm not sure. Apparently she is, though.

"Come on, they'll be multiplying soon!" she yells over her shoulder, and I'm momentarily distracted by how beautiful she looks with her hair blowing all over the place. I take a mental picture and save it for later, knowing now is not the time to be gawking like a teenage boy. I'm much too old for all that.

"What do you mean multiplying?" I yell back.

"They're not so willing to let one so clever as you escape their clutches so easily!" she yells again, her head facing forwards so she can see where she is taking us. Somehow, I trust her.

We reach the Tardis without too much drama, except, oh about a million honey-minions chasing us in their sluggish, honey-like way. Somehow she managed to make them disperse by yelling something completely unintelligible at them. My admiration for her grows with every moment.

I dig around in my pocket for the key to the Tardis, eventually finding it beneath my hanky I had to keep in my previous regeneration, as I always had a runny nose. I turn the key in the lock, open the door and step inside. I turn round to invite my new friend inside, only to find nothing there. Where did she go?

I'm half tempted to go back out there and look for her, but for some reason that I cannot fathom, I don't. Instead I look around the landscape, send out a silent thank you, and turn back to my ever faithful Tardis.

I think it's time for a wardrobe change. A grin splits my face in two as I run into the depths of the Tardis, wondering what I shall wear this time.

I stand in front of the mirror and examine myself, knowing the grandpa look will have to go, which is a shame, as I rather liked the leather jacket. I wander around, hoping something will catch my eye.

There are all sorts of weird and wonderful clothes in here. From every era on Earth, and plenty of other planets too.

Eventually I pick out a coloured t-shirt with v-neck, and a nice pair of black jeans. But even then there's something missing. Maybe the leather jacket won't have to go after all.

I pull it on, examine myself, my lips to look at my teeth..It's remarkably strange to get used to new teeth, everything else is fine, but new teeth are the strangest of all.

"It'll do," I think to myself, and I stroll back to the main control room, wondering where I'll head off to this time.


	3. Chapter 3

I strolled into the main control room, grinning again as I remembered what it was like when I was younger, yet had the body of an old man. At least now I knew I could run away from my enemies, which I was rather good at, if I do say so myself.

"Where to now, old girl?" I ask softly as I reach the console, stroking her softly.

"Hold on, what's this?" I bend over as I see a small slip of paper on the floor, caught between one of the grates covering the power cells beneath.

"Hmmm, and it isn't psychic paper, so what could it be, and how did it get here?" I ask myself aloud.

Then I remember when the mysterious disappearing woman grabbed my hand earlier, and her hand had gotten rather close to my chest, near the pocket I kept my sonic screwdriver in. I had been so distracted by her appearance and the honey-minions that I hadn't noticed her slip something inside before grabbing my hand and telling me to run.

Now that I thought about it, I was a little angry about that. It was normally me who did the hand-grabbing, the leading of the running away attempts. I guess that was the difference between us, mine were just that, attempts, because I usually ended up precisely where I had started, but she had actually succeeded in getting us away.

If I was nicer, and less arrogant, I would have been proud of her, rather than acting like a petulant child that hadn't got its own way.

I peeled open the folded slip of paper as I rose to my feet, smiling as the smell of honey permeated the control room from the paper, reminding me of her and the moon I had just left behind. Even though it wasn't technically a moon at all.

Clear handwriting. A few lines of text, clearly written with a skilled hand with an old fashioned quill dipped in ink. I brought it to my nose to smell, ignoring the overpowering scent of honey, focusing instead on the scent of the ink itself, hoping to determine when it was written and where.

Earth, how surprising. London, terribly shocking, that. The year 3020, well I wasn't expecting that, that's for sure.  
><em>"Doctor, I'm not sure when this message will reach you. I have a friend who promised to deliver it for me. I have been studying the diaries of England's queens of old, hoping for some guidance in my reign. I would like to speak with you about some of the events outlined in them. <em>

_Kind regards, Elizabeth X"_

Never met her before. I thought to myself, wondering how she'd managed to stumble on someone who knew how to contact me. Which of course brings to mind the mystery girl and how she keeps appearing and disappearing. I should be disconcerted, but instead I am merely intrigued. She is quite fascinating. I wouldn't even mind meeting her again, even if my male pride had to suffer because of it. I suppose I would have to be polite and thank her for saving me, even when the only thing I really want to do is tie her up until she explains who and what she is, and how she keeps diaappearing all the time. Damn her for making me like this!

I close my fist around the paper in anger, my fingers going white with the force of it.

"Liz Ten, here we come!" I yell with jubilant sarcasm to the empty air around me, wishing fervently yet again that it wasn't quite so empty. Remembering the last time I made that exact same wish and what happened after.

The Tardis creaks and groans and shakes as I fly her to our latest destination. She nearly makes me lose my balance sometimes, but I love her anyway. I'd never admit it, but sometimes I don't know what I'm doing, not even when I'm flying the Tardis. It's hard to do all on my own when they're supposed to be flown by at least six experienced Time Lords, not one idiotic man who can't stop grinning!

The wheezing comes to an end as the Tardis lands. I check the scanner before I leave, not wanting to end up with a repeat of last time. Or even any other time when the Tardis hasn't landed where I wanted her to.

Sighing, I figure I'd best stop putting this off and get it over and done with. I pat my pockets to check I have my sonic and psychic paper as I walk down the ramp. I pull open the doors with that lovely familiar creaking sound. I poke my head out, hoping that there's never a time in which I'll need to wire it up for stealth approaches.

All clear. I step out, not seeing anything out of the ordinary. Then I look up and see the sky. Solar flares everywhere. Devastating ones. I can see why she wanted to contact me. Diaries, not so much.

I shrug my shoulders again, feeling despondent, and just a little bit callous, as I deftly weave my way through the mayhem on the streets. The Tardis appears to have landed on a council estate, with lots of ugly apartments reaching up towards the sky.

A sign nearby, completely in disrepair mind you, says "The Powell Estate." Lord knows why the Tardis chose to land here!

I walk past it, figuring Liz Ten, as she is affectionately known by her people, will be at Buckingham Palace. How predictable. Why couldn't the Tardis have taken me straight there? It would have saved me an incredibly long walk.

I head towards the main road, when a girl runs out from an alley and comes to a sudden stop. She turns around and yells into the shadows, "Nah, he's not done yet. Still cooking." Then she turns and walks back into the alley like nothing happened, or like what she just said is totally normal. Then again, maybe to her it is. Maybe she yells those sorts of things on a daily basis and it still makes sense to her. Who knows?

I shrug and keep walking. My head drops and I focus resolutely on the ground as I remember the last time I walked like this. I remember the noble thoughts running round and round in circles, and the not so noble actions that followed.

_"Time Lords of Gallifrey, Daleks of Skaro, I serve notice on you all. Too long I have stayed my hand, no more." _

"No more," I murmur, my eyes still on my feet.

"What was that, guv?" asks a street rat as he races past. I turn to face him, wondering if London still has street rats in this day and age.

"Nothing," I say, raising my eyebrows as if to say "now run along!"

Obeying my unspoken words, the street rat does what he is probably best at, he disappears. It doesn't occur to me that anything else is odd about my surroundings, but my mind is otherwise occupied.

What the hell could Liz Ten want with me anyway? From what I know she's a really great ruler, so she doesn't need any help in that respect. What could she possibly need from me? Cause I don't believe that silly little note, that was just an interesting excuse to catch my attention.

"Well consider me caught!" I throw my head back and yell to the sky.

"You right there, guv?" Asks the street rat again.

"You again?" I ask. "What are street rats doing during the rule of Elizabeth the Tenth anyway?!"

"There's ain't no such thing as a woman queen, you sure you're all right?" the street rat asks.

"What year is this?" I ask, confusion. Has the Tardis gotten it wrong again? And why was that girl earlier wearing jeans then?

"The year of our Lord Eighteen Hundred and Seven, guv. What are you on that you can't even remember the date?" he shakes his head and runs off, like _I'm _the crazy madman.

"Don't mind him, he's just a ghost. He doesn't know what he's saying," I glance over to the teenage punk sitting on a nearby bench, half his face hidden by artificially dyed black hair.

"A ghost?" I echo, still confused.

"There are lots of them now, where have you been that you don't know all this?"

"Just easily bored, I suppose," I tell him, trying but failing miserably to keep the idiotic grin off my face.

He rolls his eyes. "Who are you anyway?" he asks.

"Nobody important. Judging by your clothes, if my history is accurate, and my history is very accurate, you're not from this time period either. What year is it to you?"

"It's 2011, what planet have you been on?" he asks, like I'm the idiot here, and not him.

"Most recently, Gallifrey. And you are in the wrong time. I wonder why..." my voice trails off.

"What do you mean, a reason? There's not a reason, it just happened!" punk boy yells angrily at me.

"There's always a reason for these sort of things. And they usually just want your planet," I say sadly. I've almost had enough of saving planet Earth, and humans in general.

"Madman," he whispers under his breath, then he flickers and fades until it's like he was never there. And if everything had been happening in the right order, he never should have been.

I shrug again and keep walking, wondering if I'll bump into any more "ghosts"

Eventually I get to Buckingham Palace without too many more dramas of the ghostly or normal? kind. The butler opens the door, takes one look at me, nearly closes the door in my face, then changes his mind.

"The queen awaits you in the throne room. Please make yourself presentable," at this the butler glances down his nose at my clothes like they should be burnt and thrown away, "and proceed there immediately," he ushers me inside and closes the door behind me.

I brush any residual sand from my last visit to Gallifrey off my beloved leather jacket and pronounce that I'm ready.

The butler sneers, turns his back and leads the way towards the throne room. My footsteps echo on the tiled floor of the hallway, but I don't bother trying to quieten them. I'm as good as any queen, I'm the bleeding Lord of Time! And speaking of, there's definitely something wrong in that division.

The butler throws open the double doors to the throne room dramatically.

"Has he arrived?" rings out a regal voice, feminine in nature.

The butler gestures me inside, sneering again at my choice of attire, but well, I don't care, and even if I did there wouldn't be time to get changed and where would I get changed?

On the throne resides a young attractive woman of about thirty, with curly black hair, tightly restrained and away from her face. She wears a tight red corset and a black cape, with combat boots to match. On her face is a mask, perfectly formed to each of the features of her face.

"The Doctor, I believe?" she asks boredly, flicking a fingernail at something only she can see.

"At your service," I say sarcastically, making a crude curtsy.

"Something has happened to time, Doctor, and considering your past help to my kingdom and its citizens, I had hoped you would help again. Did you get my message?" she asks, finally making eye contact with me behind that well-made but hideous mask.

I shudder.

She lifts her hands to the edges of the mask and removes it revealing the youthful face of a negro woman with intelligent brown eyes.

"I have done extensive research on you Doctor," she says as she stands and begins to descend from her throne. "I'm not sure how much of it is accurate considering the current situation with time, but goodness do you get around!" with this she smiles.

She reaches for my hand and shakes it, while I still stand there gobsmacked.

"It's so very nice to meet you," she finishes, her eyes misting up.

"What can I do to help?" I ask when I finally get control of my wayward thoughts.

"Well, for a start, you could tell me why there are so many solar storms?" she asks.

"I thought you wanted to know what happened to time?" I ask, confused again. Women never did make any sense to me.

"That can wait. For now I need a way off this planet that is sustainable," she is now fully back in the role of queen, and any one who saw her would not doubt that that is what she is. She says this over her shoulder as she turns and heads back to her throne.

"It's not really my area of expertise," I tell her, frowning. How much does she really know about me?

"Hmmm," she taps her finger against her lip, clearly contemplating something. If it weren't for my blasted curiousity I wouldn't have stuck around long enough to find out what she was contemplating.

"Perhaps we could compromise?" she asks, her eyes flitting to the roof then landing on me.

"Oh, no no no no," I say, raising my hands as if to hold back her suggestion from touching my skin.

"Yes, Doctor. Come with me," she gets up from her throne again in a smooth, fluid manner and begins to walk past me towards a door I hadn't noticed. Definitely easily bored.

The secret door leads to a room full of human technology, all the lateat and greatest from this time period. No vortex leakages here.

Liz Ten turns to me with a hand on her hip. "What do you think of my life's work, Doctor?" she asks softly, as if she's afraid of my opinion.

I wander around a bit, picking things up and putting them down again, wanting to draw out this moment where I have the power, because I sense that from here on out it isn't going to happen very often. She has an interesting collection, but it isn't for any old inane purpose.

"You're planning to leave the planet,"

"I said as much, didn't I, Doctor?" she moves closer as she speaks.

"Thing is," she continues "All I need now is a way to get out there amongst the stars, but nothing we've tried works, and we can't find anything alien that we can scavenge off either,"

"Ah. You want me to help you,"

"Just think of all the children, Doctor," she says softly, placing her hand on my shoulder.

I don't think she realises the pain her words inflict on me, bringing about memories of my own home planet and all those children I failed to save.

"Right then!" I say brightly, moving away from her. ""What do you want me to do?"

"Well, find a way for us to leave this planet and all its ghosts behind," she asks timidly. I wonder whats wrong with her, she wasn't like this originally.  
>"Oh, but that won't solve anything! You'll have just run away from all your problems, but if the problem's with time and not just with the planet, which it probably is, then you'd be running away from a perfectly good planet for no reason. Especially if those solar storms are from the future and not here," I muse aloud.<p>

"We have had the solar storms long before the ghosts started appearing, Doctor,"

"Hmmm, what to do, what to do?" I tap my finger against my chin, reminiscent of Liz's contemplation earlier.

"Ah!" I yell excitedly. "I could wire up the Tardis to some of your instruments and do some experiments to see what's gone wrong with time! That way you might not have to leave the planet!" I race out of the room without listening to Liz's protests. What better idea than this could she possibly have?

When I arrive back about an hour later, after having executed an almost perfect Tardis landing, Liz is gone and in her place are a team of scientists. As I step out of the Tardis, they all bow to me.

"Lord Time," they intone blandly.

Then like nothing happened they return to their work. I shrug and start lugging out all the bits and pieces I thought I might need.

Soon I'm rushing back and forth between the room and the Tardis, wiring things up, doing experiments, all that super fun nerdy stuff. But the whole time I'm wishing for someone who would be impressed by my superior cleverness, an extra set of hands to help out, someone to talk to when everything gets a bit tedious. I either end up talking to myself or the Tardis or even no one in particular at all.

Two hours later I've determined what the problem is. But I've also noticed that sometimes there are people who walk in and out of the room, but they're wearing the wrong sort of clothes, clothes from different eras. I think I even saw Kate Middleton with her baby held in her arms.

How will all those ghosts react when I shut this entire thing down? Especialy if some of them get stuck in the wrong time stream. But I have to do it, I know I do, otherwise the whole thing will unravel. Things that were meant to happen won't and vice versa.

I run back into the Tardis, closing the door behind me. I think can even do it from here.

Then I pause. Someone's here!

The woman from yesterday pokes her head around the console of the Tardis.

"I wondered when you'd get back," she smiles and I nearly lose my breath entirely. Then I grin back, not entirely sure what I'm smiling about, but happy just the same.

"Did you miss me?" she winks as she walks around the console to get closer to me.

She thinks I don't notice her flicking switches and pressing buttons on her way past, but I do. And I know exactly what she's trying to do.

"I know what you're trying to do, and it won't work," my voice is cold, the grin long gone from my face.

"Oh you think so?" she asks rhetorically.  
>"Arrogant man," she murmurs, but I know there's no anger behind it.<p>

I can't help but smile, cause she still keeps trying, even though it's definitely not going to work. I subtly go around and change back all the things she changed. The poor Tardis is getting confused, but it's all for the best. Once I get this silly woman to behave!

It ends up being a silent war of who can finish pressing all the buttons in the right sequence. I win.

The Tardis starts to make an absolutely horrid groaning sound and we both cover our ears. While I stand there looking confused and wondering what I did wrong, she just moves around the place and redoes everything until the groaning stops.

"There we go," she says happily, smiling again. "That should've fixed most of the anomalies,"

"Who are you, anyway?" I ask her.

"Typical man, doesn't even ask what I did to fix it. Or thank me!" she whispers under her breath.

Then "Spoilers!"

"But what's your name?" I ask, frustrated.

She's gone. Again.

How does she keep doing that?


End file.
